For better or worse, Apple had the audacity to break the longstanding invisible price ceiling of $800 for premium flagships with last year’s $1,000 iPhone X. In every sense of the word, the landmark smartphone had crossed the line from being just a regular consumer electronics item to a luxury product like Louis Vuitton bags and Chanel dresses. This year, they follow it up with even more opulent offerings with the iPhone XS series whose top-of-the-line XS Max crosses far beyond the already stratospheric price tag.
As such, bashers, casual fans, and even early adopters who had already forked over the $1,000 or more to Apple were united in pointing out the glaring flaws that the smartphones shipped with. The bad news trickled, at first, from the first unboxing videos that featured charging issues and eventually evolved into an avalanche of negative news from both professional gadget reviewers on YouTube and legitimate news sources such as Forbes. The complaints are no longer just confined to charging but has since branched out to include connectivity and photo capture.
Unsurprisingly, we have another set of gates on our hands. It’s what most of the biggest iPhone launch-day issues and bugs are dramatically referred to. From the iPhone 4’s antennagate to the iPhone 6S’ bend-gate, these issues are often viewed as the deathblow to the mighty smartphone line. But, they’re often just swept under the rug after Apple does its branding magic.
The way the company handles these gates should be viewed as a masterclass in branding. Looking at the way previous issues are handled, it looks like Apple is going the same route this time around - a long stretch of silence, and a statement that's eerily both an acknowledgment of the issue and a refusal to admit that it was their fault. Nonetheless, they still issue fixes through software or through free repairs.
To get you up to speed before you pull the trigger on the iPhone XS and XS Max that you’ve been salivating over for the past few weeks now, we’re listing all the current issues together with their details. An informed choice, after all, is the best choice especially when your decision involves handing over your hard earned cash to a trillion-dollar company.
Charge-gate
Some early adopters say that when you charge the phone on standby mode using the included lightning charger, the phone wouldn’t behave like how it should. Some people report that turning the screen on helps begin charge process but some claim that even that doesn’t do anything.
It’s a potentially huge issue that greatly diminishes the iPhone’s world-famous ease of use. If left unchecked for an extended period, it can potentially shift the tides of the smartphone market because it’s just so annoying. It’s a good thing that, as of the time of writing, only a couple of hundreds out of the 200+ million sold have reported to have the problem.
Workarounds include using wireless charging pads, reversing the lighting cable, and just plain old trial and error and perseverance.
Beautygate
iPhone cameras have always gotten praise for prioritizing accuracy over fancy details on captured photos. Both the XS and XS Max cameras, however, seem to have deviated from that winning formula. Users point out how, compared to last year's model, the front-facing cameras on the new ones tend to smoothen out the faces on the photos.
In this case, it doesn't seem to be a simple bug. It looks more like a new feature on the new phones because it's almost a universal observation on both the XS and XS Max front-facing cameras. Therefore, there are no workarounds or fixes available for this issue
Antennagate
In a seemingly repeat performance of the iPhone 4 antenna issues, a handful iPhone XS and XS Max owners are also complaining about the connectivity issues. Particularly, the LTE and Wi-Fi connections on the new phones seem to be significantly slower than their rivals.
While the number of the users complaining about connectivity might be few, but their experience with the phone must be undeniably excruciating because iPhones are historically exceptionally strong performers in that regard.
There’s a chance that these can be fixed with a software patch but if the iPhone 4 software patch is to be used as a template, it wouldn’t do much to fix the issue.
Bigger Questions Need to Be Asked
If we examine the history of the iPhone, we’d know that all these issues are par for the course when it comes to iPhone releases. The iPhone 3GS had sound problems, the iPhone 4 had the antennagate, iPhone 6S suffered from bendgate, and many other minor issues have come plagued the other iterations of the world's most beloved smartphone series, but they've all conquered those problems.
The fact of the matter is that each and every iteration has had issues out of the box and that’s a normal phenomenon when it comes to mass production. Quality control issues are bound to happen especially when you ship 200+ million products.
The most asked question on the internet right now, rightly so, is whether there’s a fix. But, there’s an even bigger question behind that one. It’s whether it’s permissible that the iPhone, with its luxury price point and reputation of opulence, still has these types of blunders.
The attention that the small percentage of dissatisfied customers with dysfunctional units is only a result of the $1,000 price tag. There is a spotlight now shining on Apple because of their bold foray into the luxury product field. While it’s true that the immediate question that needs to be asked is can Apple fix these. We’re almost certain that the trillion-dollar company can do it.
All of these point to the fact that this is an important period in Apple's history where they are in the spotlight for making the historic move of pricing their phones at $1,000. A wrong move especially in handling these new issues can potentially bring them a couple of steps back from their pioneering ways.
As such, bashers, casual fans, and even early adopters who had already forked over the $1,000 or more to Apple were united in pointing out the glaring flaws that the smartphones shipped with. The bad news trickled, at first, from the first unboxing videos that featured charging issues and eventually evolved into an avalanche of negative news from both professional gadget reviewers on YouTube and legitimate news sources such as Forbes. The complaints are no longer just confined to charging but has since branched out to include connectivity and photo capture.
Unsurprisingly, we have another set of gates on our hands. It’s what most of the biggest iPhone launch-day issues and bugs are dramatically referred to. From the iPhone 4’s antennagate to the iPhone 6S’ bend-gate, these issues are often viewed as the deathblow to the mighty smartphone line. But, they’re often just swept under the rug after Apple does its branding magic.
The way the company handles these gates should be viewed as a masterclass in branding. Looking at the way previous issues are handled, it looks like Apple is going the same route this time around - a long stretch of silence, and a statement that's eerily both an acknowledgment of the issue and a refusal to admit that it was their fault. Nonetheless, they still issue fixes through software or through free repairs.
To get you up to speed before you pull the trigger on the iPhone XS and XS Max that you’ve been salivating over for the past few weeks now, we’re listing all the current issues together with their details. An informed choice, after all, is the best choice especially when your decision involves handing over your hard earned cash to a trillion-dollar company.
Charge-gate
Some early adopters say that when you charge the phone on standby mode using the included lightning charger, the phone wouldn’t behave like how it should. Some people report that turning the screen on helps begin charge process but some claim that even that doesn’t do anything.
It’s a potentially huge issue that greatly diminishes the iPhone’s world-famous ease of use. If left unchecked for an extended period, it can potentially shift the tides of the smartphone market because it’s just so annoying. It’s a good thing that, as of the time of writing, only a couple of hundreds out of the 200+ million sold have reported to have the problem.
Workarounds include using wireless charging pads, reversing the lighting cable, and just plain old trial and error and perseverance.
Beautygate
iPhone cameras have always gotten praise for prioritizing accuracy over fancy details on captured photos. Both the XS and XS Max cameras, however, seem to have deviated from that winning formula. Users point out how, compared to last year's model, the front-facing cameras on the new ones tend to smoothen out the faces on the photos.
In this case, it doesn't seem to be a simple bug. It looks more like a new feature on the new phones because it's almost a universal observation on both the XS and XS Max front-facing cameras. Therefore, there are no workarounds or fixes available for this issue
Antennagate
In a seemingly repeat performance of the iPhone 4 antenna issues, a handful iPhone XS and XS Max owners are also complaining about the connectivity issues. Particularly, the LTE and Wi-Fi connections on the new phones seem to be significantly slower than their rivals.
While the number of the users complaining about connectivity might be few, but their experience with the phone must be undeniably excruciating because iPhones are historically exceptionally strong performers in that regard.
There’s a chance that these can be fixed with a software patch but if the iPhone 4 software patch is to be used as a template, it wouldn’t do much to fix the issue.
Bigger Questions Need to Be Asked
If we examine the history of the iPhone, we’d know that all these issues are par for the course when it comes to iPhone releases. The iPhone 3GS had sound problems, the iPhone 4 had the antennagate, iPhone 6S suffered from bendgate, and many other minor issues have come plagued the other iterations of the world's most beloved smartphone series, but they've all conquered those problems.
The fact of the matter is that each and every iteration has had issues out of the box and that’s a normal phenomenon when it comes to mass production. Quality control issues are bound to happen especially when you ship 200+ million products.
The most asked question on the internet right now, rightly so, is whether there’s a fix. But, there’s an even bigger question behind that one. It’s whether it’s permissible that the iPhone, with its luxury price point and reputation of opulence, still has these types of blunders.
The attention that the small percentage of dissatisfied customers with dysfunctional units is only a result of the $1,000 price tag. There is a spotlight now shining on Apple because of their bold foray into the luxury product field. While it’s true that the immediate question that needs to be asked is can Apple fix these. We’re almost certain that the trillion-dollar company can do it.
All of these point to the fact that this is an important period in Apple's history where they are in the spotlight for making the historic move of pricing their phones at $1,000. A wrong move especially in handling these new issues can potentially bring them a couple of steps back from their pioneering ways.